The Belarusian opposition decided to find a replacement for the disappeared speaker

The Commission on the Statute of the Coordinating Council has published a decision on the election of a new speaker. It is recommended to hold them on May 13. By that time, Speaker Angelika Melnikova, whose whereabouts are still unknown, will not officially perform her duties for three months. The disappearance of the speaker, who has not been seen since the end of February, remains an alarming mystery, opening up space for a variety of conspiracy plots. Meanwhile, Melnikova’s associates are going to announce this week the payment of a monetary reward for information about her whereabouts.

Chairman of the Constitutional Court’s commission on the charter and organizational issues Yevgeny Karaulov said that the election of a new speaker of the Coordinating Council (CC) of the Belarusian opposition will be held on May 13. According to the charter of this body, the election of the speaker takes place three months after the previous speaker ceased to perform his duties. And Angelika Melnikova, according to her colleagues, stopped participating in the work of the Constitutional Court on February 12.

Actually, the elections could not have been held if Vice Speaker Stanislava Glinnik had simply assumed the powers of the head of the Constitutional Court. However, she declined this option.

For the first time, her colleagues reported Angelika Melnikova missing on March 28. Pavel Latushko, the deputy head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, whose protégé Melnikova is considered, then said that there had been no contact with her since March 25. However, by that time, no one had seen her in person for more than a month, as she referred to illness and poor health. Later it became known that Melnikova left the territory of the European Union on February 26 (flew to London), and her ex-husband left Poland for Belarus on March 3.

Representatives of one of the opposition resources managed to contact and talk to him in early April. And the former spouse confirmed that he and their two children are in Belarus. At the same time, he stated that, although he allegedly did not know anything about Angelica’s whereabouts, he had not filed any reports of her disappearance to anyone. He declined to comment further.

Shortly after, CC Vice Speaker Stanislava Glinnik reported that files of documents to which she had access as part of her work in the Coordinating Council had been downloaded from Angelika Melnikova’s account, including a strategic plan, budget, internal reports and a number of other materials.

Following this, it became known that money had been withdrawn from the account of the fund in support of opposition initiatives, founded by Angelika Melnikova. It is unknown who performed this operation.

Meanwhile, the investigation of the speaker’s disappearance in Poland has been moved to a higher level – now it is not the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office that is dealing with it, but the National One.

Actually, exactly one month has passed since Melnikova’s associates announced the start of the search. And since then, there has been no clarity in this mysterious story, despite the best efforts of her colleagues.

Alexei Leonchik, a well-known opposition figure, said: “We still only know that she flew to London and flew from London to one of the “third countries”. I can’t say more yet, as attempts are continuing to determine where Angelica could have flown next.” The activist says, “It’s either kidnapping or coercion. I have my own theory of how this could happen, but it’s still speculative.”

Leonchik announced a fundraiser for a reward for anyone who provides information about Melnikova’s fate. This week, he hopes, the necessary amount will be collected and then offered to applicants with relevant information.

At the same time, he admits: “So far, no one has specifically contacted us. There were random offers, someone wrote in Telegram. They paid attention to certain people, but when I asked for specifics, they disappeared. Unfortunately, there are only dead ends so far.” Moreover, Leonchik says that the British law enforcement authorities have not yet shared any information on this case.

Pavel Latushko, in turn, comments on the situation in the opposition press: “We know that the case has been transferred to the supervision of the Polish National Prosecutor’s Office, the Department for combating Organized Crime in Lublin is dealing with it. I addressed the Polish Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar with a special letter, where I asked the prosecutor’s office to take the case under supervision. Perhaps this letter played a role.”

At the same time, Latushko claims that he has information that Melnikova had previously received threats of a “repressive nature.” The politician claims that his associates have created a special group that analyzes all information related to the speaker’s disappearance. But he admits: “We are looking for her, although our options are limited. We cannot conduct investigative actions in Poland or other countries. Especially in Belarus. But a few people are working on it all the time.”

Latushko claims: “Without the influence of the regime, Angelica’s disappearance is impossible. I don’t know to what extent. But there is an impact.”

So far, these allegations remain completely unfounded. Meanwhile, Alexander Lukashenko is clearly aware of this rather unpleasant situation for both the opposition and Poland. Recently, commenting on the relations with Warsaw to Belarusian journalists, he ironically remarked: “They lost this speaker there. They can’t find it! They can’t find it. So find at least one.”